 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 797, 14 January 2019 |
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Welcome to this year's 2nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Two hurdles Linux faces when trying to gain more mainstream appeal on desktop systems are support for more gaming titles and support from hardware retailers. This week we are happy to share good news on both of these fronts. In our News section we first look at the Debian team working on improving Secure Boot support on their distribution. Then we talk about Ubuntu and Ubuntu MATE being shipped on new all-in-one (AIO) devices and discuss increasing support for Linux in Valve's Steam store. In our Feature Story this week we take an early look at two projects on our waiting list Reborn OS and TinyPaw-Linux and share what makes these distributions interesting. Plus we offer tips on how to deal with an unresponsive desktop environment. In our Opinion Poll we ask what tools our readers use to keep their systems running smoothly when rogue processes try to gobble up more resources than they should. As usual, we share the distribution releases of the past week and provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Reborn OS 2018.11.28
Reborn OS is a distribution from the Antergos and Arch Linux family of distributions. Like Antergos, Reborn uses the Cnchi system installer and provides a wide range of desktop environments and extra features we can enable at install time. Reborn's website mentions the project offers support for running Android applications through the Anbox compatibility software, works with Flatpaks, and can run the Mycroft personal desktop assistant.
I had previously tried Reborn OS back in October of 2018 and gave up trying to install the distribution because Cnchi kept running into problems downloading packages, telling me it had run into "error: 0". Since failure to download packages during the installation rendered it impossible to set up Reborn, I had to abandon the project.
Shortly after my truncated review appeared, one of the Reborn developers got in touch and reported that the problem with Cnchi had been fixed and invited me to try the distribution again. I gave the project a few months (and updated releases) to mature and then decided to give Reborn another test drive.
The Reborn ISO file is a 1.6GB download. Booting from the media brings up the Budgie desktop environment and shows us a welcome window. The welcome window appears to be borrowed from Antergos and displays buttons which will provide us with information. Some buttons link to the project's on-line source code repository, others offer to show us available software, another gives us a quick overview of the operating system.
Using the welcome window I ran into my first problem with Reborn. Clicking some of the buttons caused the operating system to lock up. For example, browsing the software list caused the system to freeze, necessitating a reboot. When I clicked on the source repository link, the Firefox browser opened, displayed the page and then the system locked up, again forcing a hard reset of the computer.
Reborn OS 2018.11.28 -- Reborn's welcome screen
(full image size:668kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
At this point I decided to stop exploring the live desktop and jumped into the Cnchi installer. The installer runs in a graphical window and feels similar in most respects to Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer or the Calamares installer. We are asked to select our preferred language from a list, select our country and select our time zone from a map. We are asked to confirm our keyboard's layout and then shown a list of available desktops. We can only choose one desktop to install, but the list of options is long and includes Budgie, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, Openbox, Pantheon and Xfce. There is also one called "Windows interface", but its description does not say what technology is used to present the Windows-like view.
The installer next asks which features we would like to enable. Options include accessibility packages, system maintenance, AUR support, Bluetooth, Chromium, Firefox, LibreOffice, Mycroft, printing support, WINE, VLC and Spotify. The list goes on. I kept my selection short, sticking to some common desktop applications like LibreOffice, a web browser and Mycroft. Cnchi then asks if we want to let it sort its list of package mirrors or manually select mirrors. I took the recommended automated sort.
Partitioning comes next with the option of using guided or manual partitioning. I went with the manual option, and then had to wait as the installer told me it needed to finish sorting its mirror list before I could partition the drive. Once the mirrors are sorted, partitioning is straight forward and pleasantly streamlined. Finally, we are asked to provide a username and password for an account and the installer goes to work downloading and installing packages, over 700 packages in my case.
After waiting for about half an hour, Cnchi finally reported "Can't install necessary packages" and displayed the infamous error 0. Unfortunately there is no way to recover. The installer closes without telling us which package caused the problem, or giving us a chance to proceed anyway, or giving us the option to try another mirror. The installer closes and we are left to try again from step one. The project's documentation says we can try to work around the issue by manually editing the package list to remove the offending package, but that is difficult given there were over 700 packages to go through and Cnchi does not give us a clue as to which one caused the problem.
I ended up trying Reborn OS in a VirtualBox machine and on my laptop. In both cases I quickly ran into a dead end with the distribution. This was frustrating as it means that, despite the assurances of the developers that the system should now be reliable, the installer issue has not been fixed. If anything, it seems new stability issues have crept in since the last time I used the distribution.
I have been told the Reborn team is working on their own installer to replace Cnchi. Hopefully the new installer (which has not appeared yet at the time of writing) will make setting up the operating system more straight forward.
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TinyPaw-Linux 1.3
Next on my list of projects to try was one I had not downloaded before: TinyPaw-Linux. The distribution's website describes the project as "an extremely lightweight and portable WiFi pen-testing distro. One that wasn't bloated with non-essential tools and features and that could actually boot, run and perform from CD or USB."
TinyPaw is based on Tiny Core Linux. While the project has a tiny parent and began as a relatively small distro, it has grown quickly in size. Version 1.0 was published in December 2017 and was 294MB in size. Version 1.3 was launched in October 2018 and was a 740MB download. I suspect the extra weight was introduced through new packages and WiFi testing tools.
The latest version appears to be based on Tiny Core Linux 9.0. Booting from the project's live media loads the distribution into RAM, making it highly responsive. At least it does if the distribution completes the boot process. I began by running TinyPaw on a laptop and, though the system started its boot sequence and was able to load modules into memory, it then locked up, unable to get to its graphical interface and unresponsive to keyboard input.
I switched to trying TinyPaw in a VirtualBox environment and had better luck. The distribution booted into a minimal graphical environment which carries a strong red on black theme. A panel at the bottom of the screen holds quick-launch buttons for various WiFi tools, network scanners, a settings panel and a lightweight web browser called Fifth. There are also launchers for a virtual terminal, a text editor and the PCManFM file manager.
TinyPaw-Linux 1.3 -- The Fifth web browser and TinyPaw's settings panel
(full image size: 155kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Right-clicking on the desktop brings up an application menu which helpfully organizes tools into categories. This makes it easier to quickly find networking tools as opposed to password crackers or scanners.
I played around with a handful of the included utilities and found most of them worked. This allowed me to scan the network, try to brute force passwords and collect network traffic. Some tools did not work though. One would open a blank window that closed after a few seconds, one of the password crackers reported it was missing dependencies and refused to run. For the most part, TinyPaw gave me functioning tools, but occasionally one would fail or simply not run.
A bigger issue I ran into is that TinyPaw includes no manual pages and no local documentation for the tools it features. This means if we don't know what an application does, or we know what it does but want to learn how to use a command line parameter, we need to go on-line and search for the answer. This introduced a series of speed bumps into my trial since anytime I wanted to use a new tool I had to open a web browser, search for the tool, go to its website, hope the utility had on-line documentation and read that. This is quite a bit slower than just opening a local manual page.
A positive side-effect of having such a trim distribution (one without documentation and a full featured desktop environment) is the whole distribution only requires about 300MB of RAM. And it appears as though the distribution runs entirely from within memory, making programs open very quickly.
I had mixed feelings using TinyPaw-Linux. On the one hand, it does ship with some useful penetration testing tools and the platform is small and fast. However, the lack of local documentation and my inability to get the distribution to boot on physical hardware made it impractical for most scenarios in which I would want to use such a tool.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian tests Secure Boot, Ubuntu shipping on Entroware AIO, most highly popular Steam games run on Linux
The Debian team is experimenting with booting their distribution on machines with Secure Boot enabled. Secure Boot strives to prevent the user from booting into compromised environments by checking for signed low-level components. This poses some challenges for Linux users who may have unsigned or custom kernels. People interested in helping Debian work out the bugs in their Secure Boot solution can follow the instructions in the project's wiki.
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Entroware is a computer manufacturer in the United Kingdom which sells personal computers and servers with Linux pre-installed. The company has unveiled a new all-in-one (AIO) system called Ares PC that ships with the customer's choice of Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE. Forbes comments: "The baseline Ares starts at £739 (about 824 Euros) and includes a 24-inch 1080p matte display with built-in speakers, Intel Core-i3 8100 at 3.6GHz, 8GB of RAM clocked at 2400MHz, a 120GB SSD loaded with your choice of Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE and a 3 year warranty. From there you can tinker with several upgrade options, stretching all the way to the fully-loaded £2689 Ares. Considering the size, it can pack a pretty considerable punch with a 6-core, 4.6GHz Intel Core-i7 8700, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD plus an additional 4TB SSD drive. You can also bundle an additional monitor, but it doesn't look like Entroware offers a 4K display option." Further details can be found on the Entroware website.
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Linux gamers should be pleased to learn that more and more popular gaming titles are becoming available. The GamingOnLinux website took a look at the most popular titles on Steam and discovered over half of the top 250 offer support for Linux. "Overall, out of the 250 most highly rated titles on Steam as reviewed by users, 132 of them have official Linux support. Compared with Mac which has 156, we're not far off there at all. Let's just remember how small the Linux gaming platform is compared to Windows, over 50% there really is impressive."
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Dealing with an unresponsive desktop
Purging-pop-ups asks: Earlier this year I switched to using Linux, specifically Ubuntu for my computing needs. I am running a background job that requires a lot of CPU, like 100% all the time, and it is making my desktop virtually unusable. Input is slow and I keep seeing pop-ups telling me "This application is not responding - close or wait?" Why does having just one big background process bring Linux to its knees and what can I do to fix this?
DistroWatch answers: Welcome to the Linux community, I'm glad you could join us. There are a number of ideas and issues to explore in this situation so first let's take a look at the surface of the problem and then we will explore some possible underlying causes and solutions.
It sounds like what is happening is your one CPU-intensive process is using all the available resources and it is slowing down everything else, including the desktop environment. When the desktop is starved for resources, applications are not processing input quickly enough to appear "alive". When this happens, the system thinks the program might have crashed and offers to get rid of it. In this case, the applications are not actually crashing, they are just too resource hungry to respond.
Part of the issue here is that Linux tends to favour overall work performance over responsiveness. In other words, Linux will try to accomplish as many things as possible in a given amount of time, rather than making dealing with new input and generating a response its priority. This is ideal for servers and number crunching workstations, but not so great for people using the desktop under heavy load. There are ways to change the way Linux schedules tasks to try to get a more responsive user interface, but it is a technical path to walk and tends to involve re-compiling the kernel, and I think there are probably easier ways to address this situation.
Without the specifications of the computer and information on the processes (and constraints) the system is running under, the best course of action is hard to predict. However, I do have a handful of suggestions for situations like this that will hopefully help.
First, you mentioned the system is running Ubuntu, which suggests either the GNOME Shell or Unity desktop is being used. Both of these desktops use 3-D effects which require support from the video card to draw smoothly. Having a video driver that does not perform well puts more work on the CPU to make up the difference and can bring even modern machines to their knees. This typically happens if your machine is running an AMD or NVIDIA card. Almost all the reports I encounter from people saying Ubuntu runs too slowly or their desktop is not responsive can be traced back to a driver issue. Run the Software & Updates application and click on the Additional Drivers tab. This will show alternative drivers which may work better with your video card.
Second, it sounds like this background task is not being polite and gobbling up all the CPU resources it can find. This is going to slow down any system and is not ideal for a desktop machine. Ideally it would be nice to run such a heavy process on its own, dedicated machine, but if that is not possible, we can force the process to act in a more polite manner.
There are tools, called nice, renice and ionice, which will allow a program to run at full speed, but force it to stay out of the way when another program wants to work. This is done by lowering the heavy process's priority. When nothing else is happening on the system, the process can work as hard as it wants, but its reduced priority means other programs (like desktop applications) can interrupt its work.
We have talked about how to adjust the priority of programs previously in an earlier Tips and Tricks article.
A third possibility is the big background process is not only consuming a lot of CPU, it is also consuming memory. When too much memory is used up, the operating system dumps some memory out to swap space, which then needs to be read back when a program wants to use it. You can run the free command to check memory consumption.
If the computer's memory is full and it is starting to use swap space to make room for the heavy process, then there are only so many things you can do. You can run fewer applications and services, or add more RAM to the system.
Finally, so far as I know, there is no way to disable the pop-up which says a task has stopped responding. At least not without editing and re-compiling the window manager. However, you could try switching to a lighter desktop. Assuming you are running either Unity or GNOME on Ubuntu, these are relatively heavy desktops. Since you are running a CPU-heavy process, I think it makes sense to trim as much of the software as possible on this system. Installing a lighter desktop, such as Xfce or LXDE, will free up more CPU and memory for the heavier program.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Funtoo Linux 1.3
Daniel Robbins has announced the release of Funtoo Linux 1.3. Funtoo, a variant of Gentoo Linux, is an distribution that builds packages automatically from the source code. It was launched in 2009, shortly after Robbins left Gentoo Linux, a project he had founded in 2000. Version 1.3 brings a deprecation of "multilib" support, among other changes: "The ability for 64-bit versions of Funtoo Linux to run legacy 32-bit applications has been deprecated, so that Funtoo Linux for 64-bit CPUs is now 64-bit only, what we used to offer as a separate "pure64" build. This was done because 32-bit support was originally created as a stop-gap measure 15 years ago to allow for a seamless transition to 64-bit computing, and we believe the time has come to shed this ongoing maintenance burden and focus efforts that have historically been spent on 32-bit compatibility in other areas." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information. The Funtoo project does not provide bootable live or installation ISO images; users are instead directed towards the Gentoo-based SystemRescueCd to initiate any new installation. Optimised builds (or "stages") are available for various AMD and Intel processors, as well as the ARM and ARM64 architectures and Raspberry Pi and ODROID single-board computers - visit the project's "Subarches" page for a complete list.
Qubes OS 4.0.1
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki has announced the release of Qubes OS 4.0.1, an updated version of the project's security-focused Linux distribution which allows users to "compartmentalise" computing tasks into isolated compartments called qubes. This new release is mostly a bug-fix and security update and is recommended for all new Qubes installations: "We are pleased to announce the release of Qubes 4.0.1. This is the first stable point release of Qubes 4.0. It includes many updates over the initial 4.0 release, in particular: all 4.0 dom0 updates to date, including a lot of bug fixes and improvements for GUI tools; Fedora 29 TemplateVM; Debian 9 TemplateVM; Whonix 14 Gateway and Workstation TemplateVMs; Linux kernel 4.14. If you're currently using an up-to-date Qubes 4.0 installation (including updated Fedora 29, Debian 9, and Whonix 14 templates), then your system is already equivalent to a Qubes 4.0.1 installation. No action is needed. Similarly, if you're currently using a Qubes 4.0.1 release candidate and you've followed the standard procedure for keeping it up-to-date, then your system is equivalent to a 4.0.1 stable installation." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional information.
Clonezilla Live 2.6.0-37
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 2.6.0-37. Clonezilla Live provides tools for backing up, restoring and copying disk images and disk partitions either locally or across the network. The project's latest version includes several updates and fixes. "The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2019-01-08). Linux kernel has been updated to 4.19.13; Partclone to 0.3.12; ldmtool and haveged packages have been added; cURL has been added; NetworkManager has been added so that users can use 'nmtui' to configure network if necessary, especially for WiFi; making unknown fs as 'dd' and the image name for partition like sda3.dd-img.aa is now legacy - it has been replaced by sda3.dd-ptcl-img.lzma.aa; rewrite the same mechanism in ocs-onthefly; in addition to massive-deployment mode, the interactive-client mode was added so that lite server can provide the ability to enter interactive mode of Clonezilla Live in client; let live-build 20180618 handle uEFI boot, so ocs-put-signed-grub2-efi-bldr and ocs-gen-grub2-efi-bldr are deprecated." Further details can be found in the release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,197
- Total data uploaded: 23.3TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Tools to keep processes in line
Sometimes processes use more resources than they should, interferring with the smooth operation of the rest of the system. When this happens there are several tools a system administrator can use to prevent these runaway processes from having a negative impact. We would like to know which process taming tools our readers use.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running distributions for a long time in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Tools to keep processes in line
| cpulimit: | 29 (4%) |
| ionice: | 8 (1%) |
| nice/renice: | 110 (14%) |
| ulimit: | 9 (1%) |
| Virtual machine: | 62 (8%) |
| A combination of the above: | 121 (15%) |
| Other: | 53 (7%) |
| None of the above: | 410 (51%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 21 January 2019. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Toutou Linux
Toutou Linux was an open-source Linux operating system based on the tiny, yet powerful and popular Puppy Linux distribution, specially designed to be compatible with old hardware. The system uses the lightweight Openbox as its default window manager and LXPanel as its main taskbar. It features various customisation options. Toutou Linux uses OCI, a custom-built application that automates the installation, a first-boot assistant for configuring several aspects of the desktop, and Opera as the default web browser. Toutou Linux was distributed as a single live CD image supporting the 32-bit architecture only. Its default language was French, but other languages can be added.
Status: Discontinued
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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